recipe; eggless bread pudding

It has been some time since I made this, but growing up, I used to love bread pudding. We would go to weddings, and I would go straight to the desserts to check if there was bread pudding, and then I would plan my meals accordingly. I loved bread pudding.

So when I became vegetarian and realised bread pudding contained eggs, I was quite crushed.

And then! My husband asked me to make bread pudding, and Google delivered, and the only thing about the recipe I found that I wasn’t 100% happy with was the texture of the custard, so I went about substituting how I usually make custard instead.

Ingredients

• 4 to 5 slices of bread
• 1 1/2 cups of milk
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 to 2 tbsp custard powder
• 1 to 1 1/2 tbsp butter (as required)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
• 1 pinch nutmeg powder
• 1 pinch cinnamon powder (optional)

Method

1. Grease a pan with butter.
2. Spread butter evenly on bread slices.
3. Slice bread into small cubes, rectangles or squares
4. Layer the bread, buttered side up, in your tray until all the bread is in in tray.
   (You can also sprinkle raisins between layers, but I usually don’t.)
5. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius.
6. In a sauce pan, mix milk, sugar and custard powder well on a low fire until mixture thickens and there are no lumps.
7. Add vanilla extract, cinnamon powder and nutmeg powder.
8. Pour mixture over the bread layers.
9. Dot the top with a little butter and evenly sprinkle brown sugar on top. (This is optional, but it gives the pudding a nice crust.)
10. Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes, until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean and the top is browned.
11. Unfortunately, you have to share. But serve everyone a small piece while you hoard the rest.

This is making me hungry and now I want to make this again. I know what I’m doing this weekend!